Tip #4: Audit company financials as frequently as consumers do.
A fundamental tenet of consumer security is reviewing credit reports. Kroll advises every consumer to perform periodic reviews of their credit reports (no less frequently than every quarter). By doing so, a consumer is better able to spot suspicious activity and potentially lessen the damage to his or her financial identity.
The same applies to businesses – as noted in yesterday’s post, businesses are rarely afforded the same legal protections needed to recoup funds that are lost due to fraud and/or identity theft. Therefore, early detection of fraud is sometimes a business’ best chance at limiting its financial and reputational losses. An audit may be performed yearly, but a more frequent review of things like payment trends, tradeline accounts, and other business activity can be a useful tool in the early detection of potential fraud and abuse related to the company’s unique business identifiers. As with consumers, if this information is being used fraudulently, it helps to catch the activity as soon as possible to mitigate the potential effects.
Tags: best practices, fraud detection, UBI fraud
